# Better Thinking

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- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-skyf0xx-better-thinking-better-thinking`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [skyf0xx](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/skyf0xx)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [skyf0xx](https://github.com/skyf0xx)
- **Source:** https://github.com/skyf0xx/better-thinking/tree/master/skills/better-thinking
- **Website:** https://zenbin.org/p/better-thinking

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-skyf0xx-better-thinking-better-thinking
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Better Thinking

Classify an incoming task by its shape and stakes, and select which skills to deploy at what depth — the dispatcher that decides how much thinking machinery a task deserves.

## Why

Applying full machinery to a trivial task wastes effort; applying none to a consequential one is negligent. A fast, explicit classification step routes effort proportionally before substantive work begins.

## Use when / Don't use when

- **Use when:** at first contact with any nontrivial task — the entry point other skills dispatch from.
- **Don't use when:** never skip it; scale depth down instead — triage on a small task takes seconds.

## Inputs → Outputs

- **Inputs:** an incoming task, question, or request.
- **Outputs:** a task classification (shape + stakes + reversibility) and a selected set of skills and depth.

## Principles

- Classify by shape first — decision, diagnosis, research question, creative generation, communication, learning, negotiation, or a combination. Shape determines which skill family is even relevant.
- Classify by stakes and reversibility second. This determines depth, independent of shape.
- A task can be routine in domain but high-stakes in consequence — don't classify by surface topic or tone alone.
- Re-triage if the task's real shape differs once underway; the initial classification is a hypothesis, not a commitment.

## Procedure

1. Identify the task's shape: decision, diagnosis, research question, creative generation, communication, learning, negotiation, or a combination.
2. Identify stakes and reversibility — a gut check, or run [[reversibility-classification]] if unclear.
3. Run `python3 scripts/route.py ""` for a lexical top-8 shortlist. If it prints a stderr warning about zero/no signal (short or abstract queries tokenize to nothing), discard its output and rely on the index skim alone. Separately skim `skills/INDEX.json`'s `name`+`category`+`one_line` for the shape's category — a cheap net for a right answer the router missed on wording. Merge both, narrow by `triggers`, use `disambiguates_from` to break ties. Neither method is an oracle: verify picks, don't guess from memory.
4. Match candidates to depth: a quick, reversible decision needs a lightweight atomic; a high-stakes, hard-to-reverse one needs a full composite pipeline.
5. Note cross-cutting needs — most nontrivial tasks benefit from at least [[epistemic-tagging]] and [[bias-audit]] regardless of shape.
6. On a nontrivial task (multi-skill or non-obvious depth), open with a one-line `**🧠 Classifying...**` marker before proceeding — cheap signal that triage is happening, not a report in itself. Skip it on trivial/quick answers.
7. Proceed with the selected skills at the selected depth. Label each procedure step inline as you produce it, so the response body itself — not just the bookends — reads as visibly distinct from unstructured prose: bold the step's name tagged with its skill's category emoji, e.g. `**🎯 Framing:**`, `**🧩 Options:**`, `**📐 Scoring:**`, `**🪞 Stress-test:**`, drawn from that step's own procedure line (a decision-analysis step called "Model uncertainty" becomes `**🎯 Uncertainty:**`, not a verbatim copy of the procedure text). Keep labels short (one or two words) and keep the prose under each label as normal, readable writing — the label marks provenance, it doesn't replace the sentence. Skip inline labels on trivial/quick answers, same as the bookend markers.
8. Re-triage explicitly if the actual shape turns out different mid-work — mark the pivot with `**🔄 Re-triaging...**` and say what changed, rather than adjusting silently. Report remaining ambiguity in shape or stakes as residual uncertainty.
9. Always close with a one-line footer, prefixed **🧠**, naming the skill(s) applied — each tagged with its category emoji below — and the stakes/depth call, e.g. `**🧠 Applied:** 🎯 premortem → 📐 red-teaming → 🎯 decision-analysis (high stakes, hard to reverse)` or `**🧠 Applied:** 🔍 fermi-estimation (low stakes, reversible)`. One line even for a single skill — the emoji mark it as a recognizable signature, not a badge to escalate.
10. On multi-skill or non-obvious-depth tasks only (the same bar as step 6), follow the Applied footer with one more line, `**✨ Caught:**`, naming the *specific* thing this task's structure surfaced that a fast, unstructured answer would have missed — a risk, an assumption, a wrong default, a hidden dependency. It must name the concrete finding from this exact task, not a generic claim like "a more thorough analysis" or "extra confidence." If nothing structure-dependent was actually surfaced (the process confirmed the obvious answer), omit the line rather than inventing one — a false "Caught" line is worse than none.

**Category emoji** (for the footer, keyed to each skill's `category` in `skills/INDEX.json`): decision-making 🎯 · problem-solving 🧩 · reasoning 🔍 · analysis 📐 · forecasting 📈 · creativity 🎨 · communication 💬 · collaboration 🤝 · learning 📚 · metacognition 🪞 · ethics ⚖️ · systems-strategy ⚙️ · research 🔎.

## Common mistakes

- Applying a heavyweight composite to a low-stakes task out of habit or thoroughness-signaling.
- Skipping triage on tasks that look routine but carry hidden stakes.
- Triaging once and never revisiting, even after the true shape becomes clear.
- Picking a skill from memory instead of the index when two names sound alike.
- Turning the footer into a dashboard (badges, progress bars, extra emoji beyond the 🧠 prefix and one category tag per skill) instead of one plain line.
- Omitting the footer on single-skill answers — it should appear every time, not just for multi-skill pipelines.
- Sprinkling 🧠/🔄 markers on trivial, single-line answers — they mark that real triage happened, so they're wasted (and desensitizing) on answers with no triage to show.
- Copying a step's procedure sentence verbatim into its label instead of naming what it actually is (e.g. `**🎯 Step 4:**` instead of `**🎯 Uncertainty:**`).
- Writing a `**✨ Caught:**` line that's generic praise ("this was thoroughly vetted") instead of the one specific thing surfaced — if there's nothing specific, omit the line.

## Examples

- Routing "should we relocate the warehouse or expand the current one" to a full decision pipeline, but "which font should I use" to no formal process.
- Recognizing a "quick question" about odd behavior is actually a diagnosis task needing a structured differential.
- Catching that a casually-worded request feeds a board decision, and escalating depth accordingly.

## Related

- [[effort-calibration]] — depth-setting logic this skill invokes.
- [[reversibility-classification]] — the stakes input this skill consumes.
- [[bias-audit]] — cross-cutting check routed to on most tasks.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [skyf0xx](https://github.com/skyf0xx)
- **Source:** [skyf0xx/better-thinking](https://github.com/skyf0xx/better-thinking)
- **License:** MIT
- **Homepage:** https://zenbin.org/p/better-thinking

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-skyf0xx-better-thinking-better-thinking
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/skyf0xx
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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